Turning HR strategy into action: Key analyst takeaways from UNLEASH America 2026

UNLEASH America 2026 was where HR strategy turned into action.

The show wasn’t about “rehashing what we’ve all been hearing about AI for the past year,” it was about moving the conversation along by focusing “on what’s coming next,” in the words of Allan Schweyer, Principal Researcher, Human Capital at The Conference Board.

Schweyer was among more than 50 analysts who joined us on-site in Las Vegas for UNLEASH America.

These analysts are true experts in the HR field, therefore, as the UNLEASH Editorial team was reflecting on the show, we asked our analyst community about their main highlights and takeaways.

Read on to discover the analysts’ perspectives on the actions and decisions that HR leaders must prioritize as a result of UNLEASH America 2026.

HR’s AI focus must shift from tools towards work redesign

In Las Vegas, UNLEASH created the opportunity for “big conversations about big changes, and how big changes meant opportunities for rethinking the way work happens,” according to Rebecca Wetteman, CEO & Principal Analyst at Valoir.

There’s been a shift from talking about “AI as a tool to AI as a driver of dynamic work redesign. The dialogue moved past simply automating tasks and toward rethinking how work actually gets done,” notes Jordan Hammerstad, Associate Director of Research at The Josh Bersin Company.

That is what makes the show standout for Hammerstad: “It surfaces the messy, real questions that show up when AI stops being novel and starts becoming infrastructure.”

Trish Steed, H3HR Advisors’ Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, agrees.

She notes that UNLEASH America 2026 made it clear that “AI is now foundational,” and there’s a need to shift from talking about “people in the loop” to “AI in the loop” if HR wants to transform organizations into people-centric entities.

“This small change in perspective will go a long way to help employees and leaders not feel like they are just a side component of work being done,” adds Steed.

David Forry, SVP, Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall, adds that his highlight of UNLEASH America 2026 was the “HR operating model conversation. People were not just demoing tools, they were debating how HR needs to redesign itself, so AI becomes a capability, not a gadget.”

This redesign focus is what makes “UNLEASH a signal event, rather than just an industry convention,” in the view of Kathi Enderes, SVP of Research at The Josh Bersin Company.

“My top takeaway is something I’ve been saying for a while but rarely hear said so plainly on a main stage: The question is no longer what AI can do; it’s how we design work, lead differently and build trust while doing it,” adds Enderes.

Jaime Teevan of Microsoft captured it perfectly. That shift in thinking, from ‘what tool solves this?’ to ‘what problem are we actually trying to solve, and for whom?’ was the throughline of the entire show.”

Stacia Garr, Co-Founder & Principal Analyst at RedThread Research, agrees. She shares that her top takeaway from UNLEASH America 2026 was the gap between “what we’ve been calling ‘Little AI’ and ‘Big AI’.”

“Little AI — distributing tools, rolling out Copilot, giving employees access to AI features — is largely done. Business outcomes mostly haven’t moved.

“Big AI — actually redesigning how work gets done, restructuring tasks and workflows, rethinking who makes which decisions — is the next phase, and most organizations haven’t built the governance, skills infrastructure, or workforce planning capability to tackle it.

“That gap is the defining challenge for HR right now and the CHROs at UNLEASH America surfaced it with great clarity.”

This came to the fore during the Day One CHRO summit, which also provided a place for candid “peer conversation that is substantive rather than performative,” particularly “the admissions that nobody knows who own AI transformation,” continues Garr.

Garr adds that the CHRO summit “surfaced the clearest articulation I’ve heard of what I’d call the hot potato problem in AI transformation: IT doesn’t fully own it, HR isn’t sure it’s theirs, business leaders don’t know how to do it.”

For The Josh Bersin Company’s Enderes, the keynotes across the show – “Amy Edmondson on intelligent failure, Peter Hinssen on the ‘Never Normal’, Ethan Mollick’s honest admission that nobody has this fully figured out, Josh Bersin’s move to enterprise as a way to navigate the confusing tech market” – taken together “made a compelling case for operating with curiosity and courage, rather than waiting for certainty, and building for future growth, not today’s cost cutting.”

The Conference Board’s Schweyer adds that the keynotes “didn’t sugar coat what’s coming. Many emphasized the people side over technology, as it should be, but they didn’t pretend to have all the answers. The kind of frank talk is valuable.”

Not having all the answers didn’t stop UNLEASH America 2026 having a hopeful undertone.

First-time UNLEASH America 2026 attendee H3HR President and Co-Founder, Steve Boese, shares: “The industry shares a collective optimistic outlook on the challenges ahead in creating better workplaces for everyone and how new technologies and approaches can elevate the world of work.”

“I came away with more a of sense of optimism and energy than I typically do after an event of this kind.”

HR, find the clarity to lead in the age of AI

This optimism from UNLEASH America 2026 is because the show provided HR leaders with “clarity about what to prioritize,” notes Brandon Hall’s Forry.

UNLEASH asked the analysts what must be top of HR leaders’ to-do list in 2026.

Julia Bersin, Director of Research at The Josh Bersin Company, called for HR to “think outside of the bounds of what feels possible with AI.”

This was following Mollick’s keynote where he noted that these AI systems “can do a lot more than we think,” and the tools are only going to get better and better.

By pushing the boundaries with AI, HR can “move beyond assistance with AI to work reinvention with AI,” thereby maximizing the technology’s potential.

For Schweyer from The Conference Board, “the clearest call to action from the show is that HR leaders can no longer wait for the technology side of the house to hand them a playbook.”

The organizations that move now, even imperfectly, will be far better positioned than those waiting for clarity that isn’t coming.”

Enderes from The Josh Bersin Company agrees. She shares that “the CHROs and HR leaders who will win in this moment are the ones who see themselves as the architects of their organization’s AI-powered future, not passengers in someone else’s technology roadmap.”

“UNLEASH, at its best, is where HR leaders come to build the conviction to lead,” adds Enderes.

In the words of Garr from RedThread Research, HR needs to “clarify ownership on AI transformation,” as well as “make the affirmative case that culture is not a soft asset. It is the differentiated competitive advantage AI cannot replicate – and what makes the transformation survivable.”

To conclude, Harsh Kundulli, VP, Analyst at Gartner, notes that CHROs must “connect HR AI initiatives directly to critical CEO and Board-level outcomes” – to do this, they need clarity on “how work is currently performed – and how it’s evolving – so they can help the business make informed decisions.”